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I hate to burst anybody’s bubble but we’ve seen these exact headlines for decades. It’s become increasingly clear that those who can make a real difference with climate change are not interested in doing so.
We’re already irreversibly fucked as a planet.
irreversibly
Not yet. There’s still hope.
What actions are being taken though - by the people who can actually make a difference? Governments are reversing to mining coal. Trump is illegally drilling Greenland for oil. Like, what actions are actually being taken for our great grandchildren?
Many scientists say it's too late. That's my point.
It’s too late to meet our target, allegedly the point where we can avoid serious disruptions. We’ve failed to prevent harm to ourselves and can’t take it back
But there’s so much more serious harm looming that can still be avoided. We can still keep it from getting worse
There’s so much truth in that cartoon, yet it’s still coming true. Renewable and storage are revolutionary and many parts of the global economic system are restructuring. We’re late and slow but it is happening.
Except in the US. We not only threw away several chances at restructuring our economy to profit from it, but we’re working on turning several of our remaining industrial giants irrelevant, all while somehow thinking it’s a good idea to maximize our impact on the environment
Sure, I bet we can keep it from getting worse. I'll be here waiting patiently for some billionaire corpo to decide to do something for the environment over profits while we keep using our paper straws. I might nod off so wake me up when it happens.
"Fuck them, I got mine" -boomers
LOL, they might have been the first generation to really start doing the work on sounding the alarm, ironically.
Their parents and grandparents were likely even worse as far as this kind of attitude. I know that was the truth in my immediate family, anyway.
Lies. It’s gone.
No matter how irreversibly fucked we are, we can and will continue to get even more fucked every second we don't change our habits.
The planet has gone through numerous climate shifts, mass migrations, and extinction level events.
It's not what's fucked. We're fucked. The planet will keep spinning.
Even then, humanity is incredibly robust as a species. We'll have human descendants running around on the planet for a million more years. This pain we're setting up will be directly inflicted on the next two or three generations, as the global population evolves in the face of sever resource constraints.
We're looking at a highly acute crisis, geologically speaking.
We're talking about human-accelerated climate change here. We're not talking about naturally-occurring events.
Even then, humanity is incredibly robust as a species. We’ll have human descendants running around on the planet for a million more years.
Yeah... Humans survived the last ice age. And that was with extremely limited technology, and a lot fewer of us to start with.
Extreme climate change might kill a lot of humans, but some of us will find a way to survive it. How much of our culture, civilization, and technology will survive to come out the other side is another question.
More likely fucked as humans and as we disappear, the planet will heal itself or reinvent itself as it has in the past. That's what the denialists don't seem to understand: yes the planet has been warmer and colder and survived but the organisms living on the planet didn't all survive. The fossil fuel promoters are all atheists and want to live it up in this lifetime, no one else, not even their descendants, matter to them.
Wild fires are only going to get worse. Full stop.
Even if the US suddenly started completely addressing climate change, fires will continue to get worse, probably at least for a few decades, likely indefinitely.
Because:
A) These systems have a lot of momentum. Change happens slowly. We're only beginning to feel the results of the damage that has already been done.
B) There's a whole rest of the world out there. The US is a major source of climate-changing emissions, particularly egregiously so when compared on a per-capita basis ... but the US isn't even half of global emissions. If the entire US suddenly went ultra-green and entirely carbon neutral, that wouldn't save the climate. It would slow things down a bit, but things would still continue to worsen.
That's part of the reason this problem is so difficult to address -- it's not a one country problem. It's a global problem. No single country -- not even the US -- can solve it on their own.
It'd sure be nice if a country (like the US, for example) would step up and lead the way, though. One country outputting nearly half of global emissions is pretty insane when you think about it. Somebody has to set an example and take the lead. The US would be a fantastic country to take on that mantle.
But... we all know they won't - likely even with a president who isn't a senile whackjob with dementia. Instead, we see things like the US pulling out of the Paris accord. We're witnessing an active disinterest in solving this issue.
I hate to "um actually..." This, but just acknowledging won't do shit. It's going to take centuries of work.
This is the coolest summer you will experience for the rest of your life. Wildfires will only get worse. Nothing will get better for us.
Conservatives are not just ignoring it, they pretend it's not a thing. Other than to gaslight and say, "the climate changes all the time, but there is no evidence humans can change it".
Often lumped in with a nice dollop of religious bullshit about how it's "arrogant" to assume humans can change the climate, because only their god (in this case, Jehovah/Allah/Yahweh) can do that.
The current regime just paid Germany 3billion to shut down their wind farms.
They do not care at all about the environment, only the money they get from oil industry.
For those that will not benefit financially at all from Big Fossil, it is about performative bullshit about burning fossil fuel, because they don't want people thinking they are gay or feminine, because caring about the environment means UR GAY.
You think natural disasters that kill thousands of people will get the attention of the American voter? Lol. Americans are dumber than rocks.
A third of the population and the three branches of government all are against making climate change adjustments to help stave up our destruction.
Kinda feel like We should fucking sue for threatening our lives in the daily...
I'm other news: Water is LITERALLY Wet
I hear from reliable sources (Lake Huron) that water is not wet. Water makes things wet.
Fuck it, let's burn down the whole world
This is a threat.
The ~~beatings~~ wildfires will continue until ~~morale~~ energy generation improves
No, no, no. The President already marked the temperatures to be much lower for next season. It'll be OK!
People could reduce climate emissions a lot by changing what they put on their plates. Greatly reduce or eliminate consumption of animal products. It would take time to get a lot of people on board with it, but it’s possible.
70% of agricultural land is used for livestock. Shrinking or even eliminating that usage, and rewilding it, would help sequester a lot of carbon.
Consumption of animal products is at an all time high, with the USA leading the way. It’s ridiculous. Things like meat used to be a luxury. Human beings have survived just fine through generations with only small amounts of animal products. Heavy consumption of animal products with sedentary lifestyles also leads to lifestyle disease.
Every time I mention this, people immediately scoff, even leftists. That’s the problem. People can’t even be bothered to change their own habits out of want of pleasure and convenience. The government isn’t going to make it happen anytime soon. Even socialist governments prided themselves on how much animal products they could produce.
Every time I mention this, people immediately scoff, even leftists.
Wow, have I been there. I don't proselytize about what I eat (at all) IRL. I figure the best I can do is set a good example and be quiet about it. People don't care for a lecture and it's not going to sell anyone on being vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian, or even flexitarian.
So I almost never mention it unless asked about it. But the topic often comes up over a shared meal. I still have supposed leftists ask me why I'm a vegetarian or challenge things like drinking almond milk (because of water usage!), FFS. This question about almond water usage is sometimes while they are stuffing meat and/or dairy into their faces. 🤣 And of course, I get the unbelievable question - "where do you get your PROTEIN?" and try so very hard not to facepalm at this. Especially when this question was answered for the same person before.
I'm still eating animal products (eggs/dairy) but even that is something I've dialed way down over the years for a lot of reasons, including health.
The other thing that grows very tiresome is having some leftist men (and some women) subtly or not so subtly imply it's not as manly or not as "primal" to not eat meat. I mean, I get why conservative choads are fragile, but when it comes from leftists? Sigh. What the fuck are we even doing here? My guess is that propaganda about food is ever-present and given a huge assist from the government as well.